The forgiveness ends

Yes, bretheren. At last. The inevitable has fallen upon us all. Pack away the summer dresses and nudists start buying some clothes. Grab the gloves and hat and perhaps even prepare a sleigh. The only redeeming feature one has to look forward to with this enbittered cold is that it highlights a short era, of sorts, coming to an end. Something we celebrate with an activity known as Christmas. Before we delve into that we must be mindful of those who have a different experience, where, be they nurses or airport staff, police officers or MI5 "spooks," do not get the same kind of relief from this period as some other people are afforded. Those people, however, will be ditching their work clothes and forgetting about pay packets for a little while. Hopefully, those in debt can stave of thoughts of such worries for at least a day, as well. Yes. Why do we do this?

Generally, humans spend every single day of their life with some sort of stress attached to them. Not only can this evolve into mental illness, stress in and of itself is, of course, bad. Having just one day, if not a week or so from stress, is brilliant. Vital. Potentially life changing, I kid you not. There are weekends here and there but it is not uncommon for people to work weekends, even Sundays, and to be too busy seeing to financial struggles to be able to enjoy life. Some people enjoy Christmas because they see it as a reference to a sacrifice of a king they believe in. Some just wish for a great... gathering of sorts so as to finally be able to get everyone together in the same house. Others just enjoy spending time with those they are already with. Christmas day can see to all of those things and more. Whether a holder of faith or not, I would like to think that the social aspect is enjoyed, or at least craved, by everyone, I can already see my Christmas fairly clearly, it will be interesting to note how much I did guess right. I can see me and my slightly older brother, Ben, playing video games together, something we rarely get to do anymore due to him working odd hours at Asda and me being stuck to the online world seeing to my online businesses. My mother will try to get everyone together for sessions of board-gaming, I have a feeling, especially as she has now acquired some new ones. It has been ever so long since I last played Monopoly. My other brothers will begin, if not also end, playing games independent of everyone else. There has been a big shift in my family, I wonder if that will become apparent even on Christmas day, this year.

A long time ago, me and my sister were very close. Even further back, me and my slightly older brother were quite close. Nowadays, I seem to hold an equal relationship with everyone, at least from my side. That is, partially, intentional. I do not wish to be closer to one person more than another, but also, there are a lot of ongoing issues, the unresolved kind, within the family, so relationships can be strained. Inevitably, I can seem quite distant from the others. In modern times, my sister is a lot closer to Ben now, in quite a few ways, however, when it comes to the discussion of serious issues I do detect a massive divide and unease on my sister's part. My older Brother James, is independent in a different way to myself. Just like me, however, he is capable of interaction. He will engage in group activities far more often than he ever used to. I detect some sort of shyness or unease remaning, though. Whereas for me, I can easily join in whenever I wish to, thus therein lies the problem. I alternate between joining in and "missing out." My father, for some time now, appears to be closer to James. Curiously, they sit near one another. I say curiously, because it must be coincidental. I would not say that the seating arrangement gave birth to their new closeness, either. Maybe ease of communication was afforded to them but it may well have started out as a thing of somewhat convenience. So, Christmas is not a reset but a gentle continuation, for some. A big deep breath before the new year- before the chaos starts all over again. Well, once again I am going to end this post much sooner than previously planned as duty calls! I have taken ownership of a new website and I started this post ages ago! Have a safe Christmas. Note people's psychology. Bring an arm around them if they are down. Listen to their worries. Give a smile. Give a gift. Enjoy their gifts to you- whatever form they may take. Seasons greetings, friends :)